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Restoration of Georgia— The True Condition of the South— Universal 
Amnesty the Remedy. 



SPEKCH 




HON. PETER M. BOX, 




IN THE HOUSK OV KKPRKSENTATIYKS, JUNK 6, 1870. 



The House having met for flebate »as iu Com- shall, with your p»>ruiin8ion and tliat of the 
luittee of the Whole ou thestateof the Union — Ilourfe, «;rKlHav(.r to show from my iuformatioa 

of the reaMispositionsofthepHopleofthe .South, 

Mr. DOX said: ja^jj,l particularly of that Stat^ for which I claim 

Mr. Speaker : What it is my purpose to say a right to speak, that no cause exists which 
to. night will be in execution of a purpose i.s founded in justice or good .s»insM for treating 
formed shortly after the passage through this any one of the southern States — whether it be 
House of the bill for the restoration of ( Georgia Georgia or Tenuessen or Alabama — in a man- 
to the place in the Union so long denied to that i^er ditierent from our treatment of ev-ery^other 
State. It was my purpose to liave delivered State. 

the remarks I shall now make upon tlie occa-' I propose, therefore, to speak in th** interest 
sion of the consideration of the amendments of the State of (itjorgia and of tiie people of 
made by the Senate to that bill. It is not tlie State which I have the honor iii part to 
necessary for me to say to you, sir, or to any 'represent. In so speaking, I shall say what 
one now present, that causes beyond my con-il conscientiously believe to be conservative of 
trol have prevented the action of this House, the rights of every State and of the people of 
and the action of the other branch of Congress every State of that Union which I have ever 
upon that subject, uow so long unjustly de- sought to maintain. It was truly said by one 
ferred. of the sternest and most faithful of the early 

Mr. Speaker, what I conceive to be the true advocates of free government "that an a.-^sault 
theory of the relation to the Union which is against the liberty of one citizen should be 
sustained by the several States under the Con-rebuked as an assault against the liberties of 
stitution, which was made to perfect and to every citizen." With equal truth may it be 
perpetuate that Union, compels me to deny, on said'that whatever, luider a constitutional Gov- 
the one hand, that iiny State can voluntarily ernment, impairs the rights of any member of 
withdraw from that Union, and, on the other, that Government, not only threatens to impair 
to assert that no just authority exists anywhere but is a direct blow which strikes at the rights 
to exclude any State from the Union for a day of all the members of such Government. So, 
or for a single hour. / likewise, in a luiion of ei^rial States, having 

Such exclusion, if enforced against a State, rights guarantied by the .-sanctions of a written 
is wrong not only to the excluded State, but is, constitution, whatever of wrong or of injustice 
as I believe, iu violation of the Constitution, is done to one of those States, no matter under 
When, therefore, Georgia applied on a former what pretense, must be regarded not only as 
occasion for a recognition of her right to repre- violative of the c« nstitution, which is the com- 
sentation in Congress I voted for such recogni- mon shield of all, '.)Utas a deadly assault against 
tion without ••ondition or (lualification of any the very life of each iu whatever makes the 
kind. A like vote I gave in the case of Vir- defiilitiou of a fre<- State. 

ginia, and in the cases of Mississippi and Texati. Perhaps, for this statement of what were once 
As I voted for the recognition of the unqualilied respecte<l as aphorisms of freedom the only 
right of Georgia to representation iu Congress commentary in some quarters may l>e expressed 
on a former occasion, so I shall vote at this by a smile o€ derision, and, possibly, of con- 
time, tempt. Man3r min«i» are so constituted that 
It will not be my purpose, Mr. Speaker, iu the baser passdons, when habitually indulged, 
the remarks to which I am about to invito the will become so stron.zly interwoven in the very 
attention of members, to conrine myself to the texture and fr: ime of thought ^s to corrupt and 
legal proposition of the right of tlie State of debase, and tiu.aUy enslave it. so that, like the 
Georgia to be represented iu Congress. Fol- distorted visio of the eye which can see only 
lowing the line of remark already pursued on obliquely the (. »bject£>. ^fore it, it will accept no 
tiiis subiect both here and in the Senate, I truth hWeyer ^aln»b1e, but will spurn alike> 






as no longer wortliy of iesi-ect, tne wisest 
maxims and tlii. I t-st lessons which have been 
learned in tuope long stmgglps i y wuu ii was 
won whatever is worthy of the name of free 
dom, whether applied to Governments or to 
peoples. But it is the reckless and the indif- 
ferent who most need the admonition,-; ( t >i.Tn- 
ger. Disobedience, the synonym ol sm, in its 
largest sense is but t^ e violation of law 
whether human cr divine, luiX is ever stimu 
lated by repetition until rtrangled in the clutch 
of the vices to which it has given birth, it 
perishes in tt^vj catastrophe of a base and igno 
ble ruin . 

The analogies of nature and of morals are 
replete with illustration of the truth that no 
wrong, however specious its disguises, will be 
permuted to continue so long that it will not 
at some time I o adequately redre.; f'I. There 
is, no doctrine better s u.^ortixl than that which 
insists on compensation joi iirury and retribu- 
tion for evil. It is tin* doctrine o individual 
responsibility, and it is, as I conceive, appli- 
cable to all men in their largest aggregation, 
however expressed by the simplest forms of 
society or fortiiied by the powers which com- 
bine to maii;e Governments. We may excuse 
ourselves tor wrou--- i Hicted on others by the 
imputation of uuw( ithiness, or even of crime, 
against tl-ose w'.irm we select as the victims of 
torture. 1. isregarding the lessons of charity, 
which are aliMxe the inculcations of wisdom 
and of just policy, we may hesitate at no ex- 
treme ot rigorous and relentless penalty until 
we ourselves in punishing wrong may outstrip 
by our own offen es those of which we are the 
unappeasable ii not the authorized avengers. 

Because the penalty of death may l-e justly 
denounced against the most heinous crin.es 
none can justly claim that such penalty can be 
rightly applied when preceded by protracted 
and ingenious torture. All lawful human pow- 
ers have their limits, justly and strictly defined, 
if not by law, by the common conscience and 
by the judgment of enlightened minds. Those 
just limits are exceeded, as well 1 y persistence 
in the imposition of penalties as l>y 1 1 eir sever- 
ity . * 'Whip me, if I deserve it, ' * says the school- 
boy; " but then stop, and give me a chance to 
do better." This is every true man's sense of 
justice, rightly administered. A disregard of 
the rule, so well founded, which it suggests 
will always make a revolt in the human heart. 
It will do more ; it will excuse such revolt. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, I appeal to the Repre- 
sentatives of the people, in whose presence I 
stand ; nay, I go further^ and I appeal to the 
people who make up the great and intelligent 
constituencies of these Representatives, and I 
ask them whether there has not been in the 
past legislation of the country, so far as the 
same has sought by persistent, protracted, and 
ever-varying penalties, to punis,h the great 
offense of the late reb'^llion maintained by 



many people residing in different States of the 
Union, a great deal which would not bear the 
!e?t r the just rules I have endeavored to ex- 
press ? Is there not, I ask, in the spirit of 
malice and hate which not here, so far as I 
know, but in quarters which imperiously seek 
to influence the legislation of the country, very 
much which, if listened to, will vindicate the 
justice and the truth of what I have spoken ? 

For more than fifteen years I have lived in j 
the State which I have tlie honor in part to 
represent. When I first went among the peo- 
ple of Alabama I was received by them with all 
that cordial and generous hospitality which is 
ever most grateful to the heart of a stranger. 
I was welcomed as one who was entitled to be 
recognized as an equal among them in the pur- 
suit of whatever was worth winning of charac- | 
ter and of honors in life. Never anywhere be- 
fore in my experience, or under my observation, 
had I received or seen more of kindness and 
generous treatment unreservedly extended by \ 
any people to one unheralded by large reputa- j 
tiou or by reputation of any kind beyond that 
which an honest man ever carries with him, 
even though unaided by adventitious supports. ' 
I went to my then new home with the opin- 
ions, the habits, and perhaps with some of the 
prejudices of the people among whom I was 
born and with whom I had been reared. Not * 
one of those opinions did 1 hesitate to express 
in every proper way ; not one of my habits, so 
far as they determined my personal deport- 
ment, did I circumscribe or restrain ; not a 
prejudice, if I had prejudices, did I surrender. 

Educated in Democratic principles, though 
not always a member of the Democratic party, 
I avowed those principles. Taught to regard 
the Union of the States, and its maintenance 
by all the powers which could be exercised 
within the just limitations of the Constitution 
as the great conservator of peace and happi- 
ness to the whole country, I proclaimed myself 
its earnest though humble supporter. Taught, 
also, ever to regard the just rights of the States 
and their inviolable maintenance as indispens- 
able to the preservation of fraternal feelings 
among the people of different States of diver- 
sified interests, springing from every variety of 
climate and production, and needing as a 
necessary condition of just development local 
legislation of a different though not incongru- 
ous or hostile character, I firmly avowed my 
purpose to maintain those rights and to oppose 
whatever threatened their invasion. 

With such consideration and character as 
these opinions and a faithful attention to my 
own business gave me, I pursued the avocation 
to which Providence assigned me unmolested 
by any one, because I made it a duty then, as 
I have ever striven to make it a duty, to do in- 
justice to no one, however humble, and submit 
to injustice from no oxe, however exalted. 
When the ambitious political leaders of th*5 



^^ South, stimulated by what I considered as un- 
^T^warranted aggressions upon what had from th« 
foundation of the (Government l^enu rt-garded 
si as the peculiar and lawful institutions of tliosn 
*^ States, were striving by earn<^st efforts to fir« 
- *the hearts of the people of my adojttod State, 
^^and to compel them to attempt secession from 
^he Union as a remedy for the wrongs with 
^^ which th«y were threatened, I opposed those 
efforts to the extent of my powers. I bailie ved 
then, as I do now and shall always l)pliHve, 
that the doctrine of secession was not author- 
ized by the Constitution, that it was neithnr a 
right reserved to the States, nor in any sense 
the proper remedy for the wrongs to wliich any 
State or number of States was then exposed. 
And in this opinion I know that a large major- 
ity of the people of the district which I repre- 
sent then concurred, and, as I believe, still 
concur. 

With these opinions the late war, at its com- 
mencement, found me. I maintained tliem 
consistently throughout that long and unhappy 
struggle, and I maintain them to its tHrmina- 
tion in the triumph of the cause of the Union. 
As I foresaw and predicated that the abolition 
of slavery would be the logical, if not the ne- 
cessary conserjuonce of such termination, I 
also unreservedly accepted tbat consequence, 
and down to this moment I accept it, without 
respect to the sacrifices it may have imposed 
upon me personally. In justice to maoy an 
honest original secessionist — indeed it is my 
duty to say in justi<!e to a large and controll- 
ing majority of the leading secessionists of the 
South, that they, to«, a('cepted in good faitli 
all that the war bad accomplished, whether 
for the just maintenance of the Union, for the 
overthrow of the heresy of secession, or for the 
abolition of slavery. And, as Clod is my judge, 
I believe that at no time since the surrender 
of the armies of the confederacy has thn thought 
been entertained or the purpose conceived by 
any considerable Humber of intelligent men,' 
even among those who wer^^ original seces- 
sionists, whi<"b pointed in ;i different dire<?tiou 
from that which I have indicated. If any sudi 
there be it lias not been my fortune to meet 
them even in the confidence 



A thousand times rather would I that honest 
men aniong my political opponents, and I have 
no doubt tht^re are many such in the country, 
should be intrusted with the powers of admin- 
istration in (iovernment, no matter in what de- 
partment, than that one of niy own party, 
hyi)Ocritically professing its principles only a.s 
a cloak to cover his knavish purposes of self- 
aggrandizement, should be intrusted with such 
administration. If, tht-refore, after the latw 
war, wheTi meeting an original secessionist, 
one who believed in that her»;sy as a ri^'ht, 1 
had reason to think or to know that be ha i 
been honest in the profession of that belief . 
that so believing he had bravely an<l fairlv 
fought for its maintenance, and that he had n- 
bravely surrendered it when to li^ht longer w.i~ 
hopeless, all I asked of such an one, all, in 
deed, that any party or individual hati a rij^L' 
to ask of such an one was, '• Are you ready t.> 
support the (jovernment of tlie Union und-r 
the Constitution which defines its powers, aban- 
doning forever your doctrine of secession, and 
accepting in good faith the abolition forever v' 
slavery?" If to that question he answer.-.! 
"Yes," I had nothing further to say, and, W- 
lieving him to be an honest man, he and I wer-- 
thereafter as Itrothers, who might differ, as all 
honest men may and sometimes do differ, on 
subjects presented for their acceptance or rejec- 
tion, wheth<;r upon politics or religion, or upon 
whatever other subjects enter into the affairs 
of men or of nations. 

It is, therefore, from my own personal expe- 
rience, from my observations made with the 
best opportunities for observation, and from 
the experience and observation of others in 
whose judgment and integrity I confide, that I 
unhesitatingly assert that had the j>eople of 
the southern States l)een re« »-ived back into the 
Union in the spirit which these remark-s indi- 
cate the war of tlie rebellion would by this 
time have been remembered aud in all future 
time would have been remeniV>ered only as a 
struggle bravely maintain«'d by people of differ- 
ent sections, contending for what each side re- 
garded as its iust and lawful rights, and there- 
fore its duty to support with whatevj-r of rero- 
uureservp of'lution an<l power it conld command. There 



social life, and to that confidence I have been 
admitted by the people of the South as fully as 
I ever was by the people of the great aud noble 
Stata of New York, in which I first saw the 
light. 

The truth is, Mr. Speaker, the distance which 
separates honest men and brave men of oppo- 
site political parties is not so great as is often 
supposed. Much nearer together kre such men 
than they themselves sometimes believe. A 
common sincerity of purpose, a common hou 



^vonld, indeerl, have been many a widowed 
heart and mauy an orphati to be comforted ; 
but " He who tempers th»' wind to the shorn 
lamb" wonl<l have furnished in the kindly and 
fraternal tempers of the whole people, in the 
new life which, under the auspices of peace 
and love, would have Wen infused into all, 
many consolations which a legislation marked 
by a different spirit, and too often vindictive- 
and cruel, has forbidden. 

Even now, after an expenditure of untold 



estv, is and should be a much stronger tie of | millions of dollars most unnecessarily wasted 
union among all honest men than anv politi-isince the war in the work ol restoring to the 
cal, or than any religious tenet, except in those 'Union, States which ha I never succeeded m 
cases in which vital principles are involved, leaving it ; notwithstanding this great addition 



to our overwhelming national debt made in tlie 
interest of imposture and wrong ; notwithstand- 
ing the many falsehoods detailed with all the 
circumstance which ingenious malice or a base 
and ignoble ambition could conceive, imputing 
to the people of tlio South purposes which have 
never intermitted of hostility to the Union, 
crimes of the iQost flagitious character against 
Union men, whether living in the South or go- 
ing to the South from other parts of the coun- 



munity there was not to be found any of the 

blood which coursed in the veins of the heroes 
who withstood British tyranny at Bunker Hill, 
at Concord, and at Lexington. The picture I 
have drawn of the condition of the people in 
many parts of the south but faintly protrays 
the reality. The patient endurance with which 
it is borne excites alike my suprise and my ad- 
miration. For, with much of error to be 
atoned for — alas ! bitterly and in humiliation 



try ; and especially imputing to the people of j atoned for—what has been already inflicted on 



the South outrages of the vilest character, that people and is daily inflicted— utterly sur- 



against the poor colored man who never can 
find a better friend — one indeed who will feed 
him when hungry, clothe him when naked, or 
administer to him in sickness more cheerfully 
than will his old master ; notwithstanding all 
these and a thousand other calumnies, the 
foundation and excuse of as many persecutions, 
if the national legislation shall ceane to find its 



passes not only my conceptions of the largest 
penalties for political offenses, but as I would 
in charity believe, far exceeds in its degrading 
results anything conceived by those who 
framed the legislation which, if pursued to the 
end to which it would logically lead, will cer- 
tainly effect the utter ruin, in all the higher 
attributes of character of, it may be a some- 



inspiration in the sources of uncharitablenessj times erring, but always a brave and noble 
and hate, my word for it in a very short time ; people. One of the most alarming symptoms 
there will be a different condition of things, I of deterioration in any people oppressed . and 
looking to the interests of all classes, white and! humiliated by prosecution is, to my mind, an 



colored, obtaining in the South than that which 
lias obtained under the domination of the po- 
litical adventurers who, going there from the 
Lord alone knows what remote corner, have 
had placed among them, by the aid of the Fed- 
eral military power, official trusts which in the 
vast majority of cases they are utterly unable 
to execute with credit to themselves or with 



uncomplaining submission to such prosecution. 

A truly wise Government will sometimes 
punish, but it will never persecute. 

I confess, almost with shame do I confess it 
Mr. Speaker, that no matter how vile may be 
the calumnies with which tue southern people 
are pursued, no matter how successfully such 
oalumnies are employed in invoking renewed 



benefit to any one. Bad laws are being con- [persecutions by the instrumentality of hostile 
stantly enacted by the strange dynasties which! legislation againsL the people of my State and 
govern in the South, while good laws are badly 'other southern States— I repeat it is with 



administered. Men are elevated by the votes 
of poor, ignorant, innocent negroes to the high 
est judicial positions who would not dare to 
aspire in any northern State to the office of a 
cross-roads justice ; sheriffs are chosen who are 
incompetent to make an intelligible return ol 
the service of x^rocess, and offices of all kinds, 
through all the grades of ri-'sponsibility, are 
occupied by men utterly incompetent to the 
proper discharge of the commonest official duty. 
Indeed, incapacity and the grossest ignorance 
are the rule (to which there are exceptions, but 
exceptio prohat regu/um) among not only the in- 
ferior officers in my State, bat with those of 
high judicial position ; and thus is there gen- 
erally violated a fundamental principle of 
Magna Charta, ' ' That no man should be an 
officer of justice without knowledge of the law. ' ' 
And yet, with such a condition of things gen- 
erally prevailing, with everything like official 
qualification branded and ostracised, it is ex- 
pected that crime will not exist nor outrage be 
perpetrated 1 

Why, Mr. Speaker, the most orderly oorn- 
munity of Puritans in New England would re- 
volt in open rebellion against such a rule as is 
to-day imposed upon many parts of the South. 
If I should be mistaken in this it would be be- 
cause among those who composed such com- 



shame that I confess to a disposition to be 
silent under the recital of those calumnies and 
the avowal of such intended persecutions. It 
may be that we of the South have received so 
many shocks that our sensibilities have become 
deadened ; that we are in the condition of the 
poor culprit, who, when broken on the wheel, 
was, alter the first dislocation, utterly insensible 
to the supposed agonies of the next in the series 
of his tortures. If such should ever become 
the condition of the South, then will the white 
man" of that unhappy section have become 
more despised iu his ])ondage and more help- 
lessly a slave than were the innocent and half- 
civilized race 'so recently panoplied with the 
great privileges and the greater responsibilities 
of freemen — privileges which white men were 
centuries in extorting from the iron hand of 
tyranny, responsibilities so momentous that 
that our ability to bear them with the largest 
benefit to ourselves and the smallest harm to 
others is still a problem needing the salution 
of a larger experience than any which our 
history can furnish. 

But I am met here by the charge of outrages 
of difi'erent kinds — all, all, it is alleged, the 
legacies of rebellion, all committed in the in- 
terest and in the spirit of rebellion! To this 
accusation of crimes, so fer as their conneo- 



tion with the late rebelhon is concerned, except tation of criminal pnrpofies generallr and es- 
asthej are the necessary consequence and con- Ipeeially of hostility to th*. Government and 
comitantot the misgoveinments which haveunion. A more unfounded a.cu8ntion than this 
been forced upon the southern people since n.-ver was conceived or uttered. To prove this 
the rebellion was suppressed, I give my distinct to be so I present to you the teatimonv of Gov- 



and emphatic denial. Every crime in the cat- 



alogue of oflfences occur ing in the States of the[ooypr^or of Alal 



ernor W. IT. Swith, the present RMpublican 



)ama. Governor Smith, on tlie 



South 18 m these days tlippantly, and falsely as|„amH 14th of April, possibly in the verv hour 

liippantly, attributed to the tamo spirit whi<-hji„ ^i^i^h the Senator from "Indiana eave ntter- 

mvokedthe late rebellion. The calumniator ^n.-e to his a.<-nsations a^rainst the people of 

of States is entitled to an equal place in thel Alabama, i.ssiied a proclamation from the capi- 

caleudar ot mfamy with that which is held by Ual of that State, in which he aavs • 

the destroyer of tlie liberties of a people. ,,mi t. • -, , . 

These, like other calumnies, have generally . yi^« ^'Xecutive avails himself of this o....a- 

originated with and been kept alive by those ^^^V" ^T?'^f ^'''^^''^*''^ ''^I'''''^''^-''^'" «^*^'* 

who themselves make, and most need, the F"^'^ 'l^'?'^""^ "^^^^^,^'^''1''"^ <^^^ 

largest drafts upon the charity of their fellow-''^ !^^'^.^^ ^^^^""^ order have been maintained, 

j^g^ ^ "^ lerabraciug nearly all the conntie.'? and an over- 

A person who once held a judicial position ; ^^''^^"^^"•^ "^^•''•'•'*^ ^'^ *^"^ P^^^P^^ ^^ the State.- 
was assassinated but the other day at Decatur, j And I read only the otb.-r dav a statement 
in north Alabama, by a personal enemy, to'that his honor, the district judge of the Ped- 
avenge a conceived or real wrong committed 'eral district of north Alabama, discharged thn 
several years since ; and behold! the telegraph grand jury summoned to in(]uire into offen.«<eg 
was at once employed by one who occupies the committed in that portion of the State becan."*' 
place of a Senator to inform his colleagues of | as he said, he was advised bv the pro.secutor 
the crime, accompanied by the suggestion that for the people in behalf of the Unit.-d Stat-s 
it was committed in the interests of the late re- that there was no occasion for their services : and 
bellion, and instigated by a spirit of hostility then, turning to the andienee, the judge cor- 
to the Government of the United States ! For gratulated them upon being a portion of a com- 
what reason a suggestion so utteely fglf^e couldmunity in which peace and order so obtained 
have been made I cannot conceive, uules.s it that he had known no community more worthy 
was that an excuse might be given for forging; of commendation for pea«e and quiet and the ob- 
the chains which are to bind Georgia and Ten- 'servance of law and order than were the peo- 
ncssee, and possibly Alabama, in a more hu- 'pie of the district of nothern Ala})ama. Com- 
miliating bondage than which already de- ing as this did from a judge whose prejudices 
grades those once free and independent Com- were, if he had any, not in favor of that peo- 
mon- wealths. About the same time, possibly 'pie, I ask those who now hear me, and those 
on the very day in which this crime was com-, who may read what I say, to give heed to these 
mitted in north Alabama, Colonel Winder was remarks, and to give them that weight to which 
assassinated by a personal enemy in the hall the oflfloial character of their author entitles 
of the court-house of Kansas City. Aboat the'tbem. 

same time, also, an honest German citizen of' Now, I submit these contradictory .statements 
St. Louis was killed by an unknown assassin, to the House and to the country without a sin- 
in the twilight of the evening, almost on thejgle remark. Hut I re.spectfnUy suggest that 
door-sill of his house, and had I the taste'the RepulOican (Governor of Alabama, living on 
which caters for and would make a catalogue'the spot, i.s likely to know as much as any one 
of crimes I have no doubt I could find oflfenseslin regard to the true condition of onr people. 
more heinous, the motive which prompted! I am also satisfied that he is (juite as credible 
them considered, and more numerons, in pro- a witness in any court as is the Senator from 
portion to the population, committed in most|lndiana or any witness he has cited, thod^ 
northern cities ami States than are committed that Senator may be onn of those exceptionallv 
in the cities and States of the South, every one virtuous people who have the highest anthoritv 
of which can, with just about as much reason, I for reckoning themselves in the cat.»gorv of 
be called legacies of the rebellion, or imputedthose who are ]>ermitted to throw stones at 
to the spirit of the rebellion, as was the mur- others. 

der committed at Decatur, or any other crime Why, sir, only thi-; morning I .saw a letter 
committed by southern offenders. from Colonel .T .1. Giers, of Morgan countv. one 

On the 14th of April last past a Senator from of the three « ounties of Alambama in which 
Indiana saw tit in his ph. -e in the Senate to outrages have Iven « ommitted, but not of a 
characterize my State as the scene of outrages political character nor in any way connected 
of the vilest character: and because murders with politi«^s. Colonel Giers, everybody knows 
had been committed in two or three counties he 'who knows anything about him. has' alwavs 
also saw fit to reflect upon the people of char- been a Union man and a Republican. And 
acter and intelligence in Alabama by the impn-,what does he say f Why, he says that Mor- 



gan county is peaceable and orderly. And 
Colonel Giers also shows in his own case how 
untrue is the statement that a Republican can- 
not be outspoken and live safely in Alabama ; 
for a stronger and more outspoken Republican 
and Union man I have never known. 

But to my subject. Disobedience of law, of 
some kind, obtains wherever man may be. 
Unrestrained by the enforcement of adequate 
and just laws, crime, in its different degrees, is 
but the consequence and the corollary of dis- 
obedience. As I have already intimated, what- 
ever of crime has since the war of the rebellion 
been committed in the South in exee3s of for- 
mer years, or in excess of what occurs in any! 
nothern community, however peaceable, may 
justly be imputed to the worthless character, 
with rare exceptions, of the incumbents in 
office in the South. It is to me a surprising 
fact that sensible men should think that any 
other result than an increase of offenses could 
follow, when, by the disfranchisement effected 
by the punitive legislation of the country, it is 
a difficult thing to find any one who is not dis- 
abled from hoMing any local, judicial,, or ad- 
ministraiive office, however high or humble, 
from that of tho judge down to the overseer of 
highways and the constable. 

My remedy for much of the disorder com- 
plained of in the South is the immediate and 
unqualified removal of all political disabilities 
from all men everywhere to whom they have 
been made to attach because of the rebellion. 
Let this be done, and then, so far as my own 
district and State are concerned, I am ready to 
give the guarentee of what character I have 
for intelligence or for patriotism that while res- 
toring to OTir best men and ablest statesmen 
the privileges and the powers of administration 
in public affairs, in the affairs of government, 
both State and na.tional, we ngiay reasonably 
expert, and can justly exact from tlip-ro, that 
which now can be neither reasonably nor justly 
expected, to wit, an accountability for crimes 
which it is not now in their power either to 
prevent or to punish. 

Mr. Speaker, I trust that whatever opinions 
may be entertained by others on the subje^^t 
which has suggestf^d th« remarks I have mad« 
on f)ne will doubt that in what T have said T 
have expressed my honest convictions. I have 
little fondness for mere speech-making by any 
one ; and I trust that the reserve which I 
have maintained in that respect siuf'e I became 
a member of the House will sufficiently attest 
my reluctance personally to participate in such 
displays. Whatever others may do, I cannot 
afford to =?peak in the interest of party alone, 
and for mere party advancement. On the sub- 
ject which is now before us for consideration I 
profess to speak not only in the cause of 
G-eorgia, but in the cause of my State and peo- 
ple, in behalf of other southern States and their 
people, and in the interest of the people of the 
whole country. I should cease to respect my- 



self—the worst calamity which can befall any 
man — if on such a subject as that to which I 
am inviting the attention of the country I 
should say aught which could be rightly 
charged as springing from any other motive 
than an earnest desire to further the cause of 
truth, of jusfice, and of peace. 

But it is often said that because no rebel has 
been executed, therefore no G-overnment ever 
treated with such clemency, with such magna- 
nimity those who had unsuccesfully attempted 
to overthrow it as our Government had treated 
those who were in arms against it in the late 
unhappy struggle. Admit this to be the case, 
has not every other Government which pun- 
ished with vindictive severity those who com- 
mitted the offense of rebellion against its au- 
thority always had reason to regret the exercise 
of such severity ? Can a single instance be cited 
from the pages of history in which such sever- 
ity is recorded, where experience has not shown 
that it was not unsupported by what a wise 
policy would dictate, and the highest states- 
manship approve ? Has not the judgment of 
mankind stamped with its reprobation every 
such instance of vindictiveness as alike inhu- 
man and unwise ? Why then, in this day of 
what is claimed to be an advanced civilization, 
in this time when benevolence and charity are 
claimed tor have asserted their ascendency in 
the hearts and minds of men and women, as- 
sume so much credit for magnanimity because 
a few hundred, more or less, of the leaders of 
the late rebellion were not executed iipon the 
gibbet and their families made beggars by the 
avenging edicts of the conqueror ? 

It needs but little reflection to determine that 
such boasting is alike ill-timed and foolish. I 
give it, however, as my candid opinion that had 
the principal offenders in the late rebellion been 
unwisely executed there would not have been 
half the provocation for complaint nor a tithe 
of the irritation in the dispositions of the great 
mass of the southern people which has been 
caused by what they justly regard as the per- 
secutions which they have been indiscriminately 
pursued since the suppression of the rebellion. 
If the administrations in power since the rebel- 
lion had punished and not persecuted the 
peace which our Presidsut invoked at his in- 
auguration would long since have been assured 
everywhere in the South. Not that I concede 
that dispositions un friendly to the Government 
rightly administered exist to any considerable 
degree in the southern States, but I allege that 
wherever found they are the result of causes 
to which I have alluded, originating since the 
war, and marking th« mistaken policy of re- 
construction So far ■A.ii it has been followed by 
acts of prose fiption, disfranchisements, and 
similar penalties, those legacies of arbitrary 
Governments of other days whose examples, 
instead of being followed, should only furnish 
for our admonition illustrations alike of the 
folly and weakness of their supporters. 



It would, indeed, be a remarkable thing if,: Grant, to whom,' under Providence, was ae- 
besides all the other good things which conquer- signed the command of the armies of the Union, 
ing the rebellion did for the southern States that I owed the opportunity of calling from the 
and people, it should have killed or reformed military prisons of tlu- North, in anticipation 
all offenders against the law ! And yet some of of the guneral order for their rt-leaae, many a 
our indignant patriots at the other eud of the brave confederate soldier-boy, the victim per- 
Capitol, and possibly some here, seem to pro- haps of an inexorable couHcriptiou, and of thus 
ceed on the assumption that sucb a result was restoring to more than one widowed heart its 
expected, for they certainly must believe that idol and its only remaining solace, and of giv- 
almost every crime and every outrage commit- ing hack to mon- than one poor old father, 
ted in the South would not have occured hut, stricken by the inlirmities of many years and 
for the rebellion. How many murders and oppressed by the L.-avier weight of sorrow, hia 
other great crimes have been committed from youngest, perhaps his only son, the stiff of his 
the basest motives in New England since the declining days, which were again to be glad- 
overthro'.v of the rebellion / How many such'deue<l by the assurance that he whom he best 
offenses are daily committed in New York, in, loved had been spared to close hia eyes In that 
Chicago, in Cincinnati, in St. Louis, and other sleep which we all feel, however vainly, cannot 
great cities of the country ! And yet it would but need the watchful tenderness and the 
justly siibject me to derision if 1 were to im-jkindly ministrations of natural affection, 
pute these offenses to the teachings of the But, turning fri uj this not unplea.sing di- 
dominant political parties of the places in which gression, made for the sake of the homage 
they occur. So should sensible men scorn to which is but due to generous action prompted 
believe the lying imputations which would as- by magnanimous motive, I come back to my 
sign offenses in the South as a general thing tolsubject. Believing, Representatives of the peo- 
causes other than tho.se which are everywhere, pie, that, by all the considerations of a sound 
operative in inducing to such offenses. ipolicy, in the interests of meri.y and of justice 

An announcement uas made the other day, the heavy hand of power which now oppresses 
I trust, Mr. Speaker, with :,ome authority, that the people whom I represent should be lifted ; 
the distinguished soldier who occupies the ex- believing, as earnestly as 1 believe the articles 
ecutive chair of the nation would, in a contin- of that religious faith which I profess, that this 
gency likely soon to occur, to wit, the restora-jcan be done with safety and the amplest secur- 
tioH of the last of the too long excluded States jity for all interests and all ch'iases in the Soul' 
to its proper placa in the Union, communicate for the white man and for the black man 
to Congress his recommendation of universal knowing, as 1 do, that the stories which are 
and unqualiUed amnesty to all persons to whom told you of wVong and outrage are, most of 

disabilities attach by reason of complicity with them, the basest calumni«.-:, and wl •• -.re 

the rebellion, lassignable to causes for whose . o 

I trust, I believe, that this prediction will just lesponsibility can attach to the . .,, ..,,j 
have a speedy fulfilment. 1 believe it because |or the chara(der of the Soutli, I beg, 1 implore 
such recommendation would be characteristic you to unshackle that intelligence, to unloosen 
of the magnanimous spirit which conceived and the chains which, if not remoted, will, I fear, 
executed the armistice of Appomattox. 1 be- leave in the South nothing worthy of the name 
lieve it because I know that the distinguished of character. Do this, and soon again will that 
person to whom I refer delights, when permit- inviting and richly endowed State which has 
ted to follow the impulses of his generous heart, given me a home more than recover, not only 
in deeds of mercy and charity. And although in her material interests, but in her moral :is- 
I am justly ;^okoned among his political oppo- pects, all that she had lost by the mistakes, or, 
nents, I here in the presence of the Representa- if you please, by the folly of those who ambi- 
tives of tL - xau.Lion acknowledge the sentiments tiously but vainly assumed that she coald be 
of gratitude which I shall ever feel and would stricken from that once glorious constellation 
with unfeigned grief be forced to abandon for of equal sovereign States wluch, as emblazon- 
the many opportunities which through his in- ed on our flag, but emblemi/es our Union and 
terposition were afforded me during the late proclaims its invincibility. 

struggle of averting the asperities of war from Let this be done, and then will Alabama, in- 
more than one stricken household ; of causing vitiug to her embrace and to her affections all 
joy to be felt by more than one heart to which who come to her as citizens seeking a new 
it had long been a stranger, and of illumining home, and drawing clo3«jr to her heart iho- 
by the smile of happiness more than one face whom she has long cherished as her childre:., 
which had long been disfigured by the pallor of by the development of the wondrous treasures 
an almost hopeless sorrow. He and I may, by of her hidden wealth, make a joyous reality 
the future antagonisms of pelitical sentiments for the beautiful poetry of her name. There 
and opposing policies, be long and widely sepa- all will indeed rest in peace and happiness ; 
rated. But never can I forget, never can I cease not only the new comer, but the old master and 
to cherish among the dearest treasures of my i his former slave, now a fully enfranchised free- 
heart the memory that it waa to Ulysses S-'man, with muoh of their ancient affection, an<» 



/; 



*^C 



more than their former prosperity. Each will 
then be independent of the other, except in 
those things in which we never can with safety 



untrammeled expression of the will of her peo- 
ple. Grive also to Georgia that equal place in 
the Union to which she is entitled, and from 



be independent of each other — I mean in the| which she has been so long unjustly excluded. 



offices of charity, those golden ligaments which 
never gall by their oppression. 

"A Government to be beloved must first be 
lovely," is «, true and wise saying which it be- 
comes all to heed. It inculcates a lesson by 
not learning which the Government of England 
has engendered in the generous hearts of Irish- 
men a hate so intense as" to defy the efforts of 
a better statesmanship to eradicate. There is 
no hatred so defiant to the assaults of policy 
as that which is traditional with a people. The 
;?.ther's quarrel is often strengthened and in- 
tensified in the hearts of his children. This 
can be accounted for by causes which are most 
philosophical. Time will cure many things, 
but there are some diseases too obstinate for 
even the remedies so bountifully supplied from 
that inexhaustible laboratory of cures. Among 
these diseases are those chiefly whose chronic 
character is confirmed by transmission to suc- 
cessive generations. The old Carthagenian who 
made his son to swear ever to hate and defy 
the Roman power, understood how impregnable 
is the stronghold of an hereditary hatred in the 
human heart. Let us avoid these examples, 
illustrating as they ever have, and ever will, 
the criminality of those who so act as to in- 
spire them, and the utter ruin of those who 
are so unhappy as to be tempte,d to the indulg- 
ence of the terrible passions which they in 
culcate. 

Mr. Speaker, in the character I have given 
of the people of the State which I have the 
honor in part to represent, you will find i 
faithful portraiture of the people of Georgia 
Alabama and Georgia are sister States, lying 
side by side. The beautiful river which finds 
its sources on the plains of northern Georgia 
also fertilizes the valleys of my own State and 
washes the bases of the hills in which reposes 
her inexhaustible mineral wealth. The same 
sun which quickens by his genial rays the seed 
planted by the farmer of Georgia gilds with 
beauty the mountain-tops of Alabama. The 
people of the one State have all the generous 
and noble qualities which distinguish the peo- 
ple of the other. And as I speak what I know 
when I say that by no State will the lives, the 
property, and the civil and political rights of 
all men be more inviolably maintained than by 
the State of Alabama, if permitted to govern 
herself through rulers chosen from her own cit- 
izens of intelligence and moral worth, so also, 
from the best information I have received in 
regard to the true condition of Georgia, from 
trustworthy sources outside of the circle of 



But in welcoming her back to the Union, bid 
her come clothed with all the insignia of free- 
doiu and all the rights of a free State. Leave 
not upon her a single n-emorial to tell of the 
chains by which she has been too long mana- 
cled. Efface, if possible, every memento of her 
great offending and of her greater but unde- 
served humiliation. 

A single remark in reference to the partisan 
aspects of this question, and I will have done. 
It is my experience, Mr. Speaker, that if we 
would arrive at just conclusions on subjects 
as momentous as that under consideration, 
our best sources of information are not to be 
found with those whose personal relations are 
too closely identified with such subjects. Al- 
though I frankly confess that my views of the 
policy w hioli it will best become us to adopt in 
regard to Georgia are nearly a(;cordant with 
those who oppose the purposes which the pres- 
ent Governor of that State has labored so earn- 
estly and by audi expensive methods to induce 
Congress to adopt, it is neither to the many 
folios of pamphlets issued by Governor Bul- 
lock nor, in any controlling sense, to those 
who oppose the views, sinister or otherwise, 
of that person that I have looked for the in- 
formation which has determined my judgment 
of the facts which make up the record of this 
case. It is chiefly upon information obtained 
from private citizens of respectability and char- 
acter residing in Georgia that I have formed 
my judgment. Mr. Bullock I have never per- 
sonally known, nor do I expect ever to know 
him. But having read the pamphlets with 
which he has so frequently regaled us from the 
prolific press of his favorite though expensive 
chronicler in Washington, I have come to the 
conclusion that it is more than probable had 
Mr. Bullock never seen the State of Georgia 
the peace and happiness of the people of that 
State would have been much better assured. 

I believe that but for Governor Bullock, who, 
though a Northern man, was, as I am credi- 
bly informed, a rebel in the late war, and 
therefore not unnaturally an intense Radical 
if Radical at all since the war, not only would 
Georgia long ago have been restored to the 
Union and peace and order have been main- 
tained throughout her borders, but millions of 
dollars would have been saved to the people of 
the whole country, now overburdened by debt ' 
and taxation. Mr. Bullock may not be that 
unscrupulous bad man whom we sometimes 
encounter, who is a pest and a nuisance to any 
community in which he may be placed, but I 



politicians who are arrayed against each other hesitate not to say that it would have been 
in this unhappy contest, I cannot doubt that better for Georgia, better for the whole country, 
it is our duty to give to that State the repub-j better for everybody, better, possibly, for Bul- 
lican form of government guaranteed by the|lock himself, had he never left the place of his 

Constitution, which can only be assured by the j nativity. 

Printed by H. Polkinhorn & Co .^ D et,, bet^ Gth and 7th sts,, Washrngton, D. C. 



